Grade 6 Habitat Helpers Pre-visit Review
Synopsis
A 60-­‐minute program offered to 6th grade students. Students learn that energy enters ecosystems as sunlight, is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis and then transferred from organism to organism through food webs. They play an energy pyramid game to learn how matter is transferred over time from one organism to others in the food web. Students also play "Energy Cups" and learn that energy is lost as it passes up through the energy pyramid. They discuss renewable and nonrenewable resources and ways that they can be protected and conserved. This program must be experienced in the schoolyard (due to the use of water in games). (California Science Standards: 5a, 5b, 5d, 5e, 6b.) Tuition: $5/student (minimum 20, maximum 40 per session). Aspects of this program also correlate with California’s Environmental Principles and Concepts from the Education and the Environment Initiative (Assembly Bill 1548 and 1721). Vocabulary & Concepts to Review:
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Biotic -­‐ the scientific name for living things Abiotic -­‐ the scientific name for non-­‐living things The abiotic components of an ecosystem are Land, Air, Water, and Sunlight. Ecosystem -­‐ a system where biotic and abiotic things interact together Ecology -­‐ the study of ecosystems The scientific method includes Observation, Hypothesis (testable question), Experiment and Conclusion. Producer – a plant, which produces it’s own energy from the sun. Photosynthesis – the process when energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy. Consumer -­‐ an organism that must consumer other organisms to get energy? Primary Consumer Secondary Consumer Top Consumer Interdependence -­‐ the reliance of two or more living things upon one another for survival o Inexhaustible natural resources -­‐ resources that will never run out (i.e. wind, solar energy, tides, and geothermal energy). o Energy is lost as it passes up through the Energy pyramid (trophic levels). o Each consumer level gets only about 10% of the energy that the level before it took in. Only 10% is transferred. o As energy is transferred through the trophic levels, it is gradually lost until the top consumer receives the smallest amount of energy. This is why there are fewer top consumers than producers, and energy pyramids represent the biomass at each trophic level. o Review predator, prey, carnivore, omnivore, herbivore, and insectivore. o Natural resources -­‐ things from nature that we want or need. They provide people with food, fuel, and building materials. o Non-­‐renewable resource -­‐ a natural resource that cannot be re-­‐made, re-­‐
grown or regenerated as fast as we can use it. Fossil fuels (such as coal and petroleum) are non-­‐renewable resources. o Renewable resource -­‐ may be used but not used up. Lumber, which re-­‐grows naturally, is a renewable resource because it can be harvested sustainably without depleting the forest. Curriculum Covered 5a. Students know energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis and then from organism to organism through food webs. 5b. Students know matter is transferred over time from one organism to others in the food web and between organisms and the physical environment. 5d. Students know different kinds of organisms may play similar ecological roles in similar biomes. 5e. Students know the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and on abiotic factors, such as quantities of light and water, a range of temperatures, and soil composition. 6b. Students know different natural energy and material resources, including air, soil, rocks, minerals, petroleum, fresh water, wildlife, and forests, and know how to classify them as renewable or nonrenewable. Environmental
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Explain why insects are an important part of the food chain. Identify reproductive cycles for different animals such as butterflies, frogs, and mice. Recognize that there is variation among individuals within a population. Learn the process by which scientists study and record animals and insects.